To serve their purpose and meet regulatory requirements vehicle seat belts must be securely mounted to the vehicle. Motor cars are usually provided with three point seat belts which have an upper mounting point from which a shoulder strap is supported. In an open top motor car the upper mounting point for the front seat belts is typically on the rear quarter panel of the vehicle. For larger vehicles, and vehicles with doors intended to allow access for rear seat occupants, the upper mounting point for the seat belts can be spaced some distance behind the front seats and thus difficult for front seat occupants to reach. This problem is often addressed by provision of a seat belt presenter comprising a motor driven arm mounted in the rear quarter panel which extends from the rear quarter panel to offer the seat belt to a front seat occupant.
The upper part of the outer surface of a rear quarter panel, to the inside of a vehicle, presents a potential head impact area for rear seat passengers of the vehicle in the event of very rapid deceleration of the vehicle, such as in a collision. To lessen the risk of serious head injury and again to meet regulatory requirements certain potential head impact areas of a vehicle must be able to absorb impact and thus limit the magnitude of deceleration of a head which contacts the surface in a collision situation. One way to lessen the effects of impact with the upper part of a rear quarter panel is to provide a casing which forms the outer surface of the panel which is spaced from the underlying structure of the panel. Deformation of the casing can then absorb the energy of an impact before a passenger comes into contact with the less yielding underlying structure. A problem with this, though, is that spacing the casing from the underlying structure necessarily reduces space inside the vehicle. This is a particular problem with open top vehicles where the rear quarter panel is often bulkier than for closed vehicles owing to the extra structure required to compensate for the lack of a fixed roof and or to provide storage. And it is especially a problem where the rear quarter panel is required to house a seat belt presenter which must necessarily be mounted towards the top of the panel.
Embodiments of the present invention have been made in consideration of these problems.